Death and Eternal Life Touched Us

5:07 PM - Jan. 16, 2006 - Add to the Wildness

On Saturday morning, around 3:00 a.m., we lost a brother in Christ.  Dear old Uncle Henry was in his eighties and had kidney failure.  I sat down and bawled when I heard.  Our Christmas card to him was still in his mailbox at the church, because we hadn't gotten in to the city to visit him over the holidays.

Henry could be a little...  Shall we say...  Crotchety.  But he liked us, no matter what.  He was a very traditional guy, with strong ideas about how people should dress, how they should behave and what kind of music should be played in church.  But he always liked us, in spite of that. 

He's with his wife now, in heaven.  He could count the years, the months, the days, and the hours since she passed on before him.  His health is perfect now.  And...  I bet he's not crotchety anymore...

God's timing is poetic.  My youngest boy, a.k.a That Little Monster, was getting to the point I call "Save 'im, God, cuz if You don't, I'm going to kill 'im."  It happens around the time they turn four, in our family.

So.  We've been praying.  The church has been praying.  In fact, we prayed about it at prayer meeting on Wednesday night.  One of my friends told me she was watching the little guy's face as he sat on my knee and listened to me praying for him.  She said he looked troubled. 

Well, on Friday, we were talking about Jesus dying for our sin again.  After that, I went into the kitchen, leaving Sister and Brother behind.  Not two seconds later, there was a scream of grave offense from the living room, and The Little Guy came running in after me.  "Mommy, she said I'm not in God's family!!"

I said, "Well, if Jesus isn't in your heart, then you're not.  We need to ask Jesus to take our sin away, because sin can't be where God is.  Do you want to ask Jesus to take your sin away?" 

He thought about it, and then the phone rang.  I took the call and figured, knowing him, he'd be distracted by now.  But no.  Instantly, "Mommy, I want to talk about God sin."

"You want to talk about God and sin?  Okay."  We went into the living room, where I evicted the Sister so we could talk without interruption.  We read the picture Bible together, looking at all the pictures of Jesus with Pilate, Jesus going to the cross, Jesus dying on the cross, Jesus being buried, Jesus rising again.  I asked him once more if he wanted to ask Jesus to take his sin away, but I didn't want to push the issue.  It needed to come from his own (very strong) will.

"God can hear us," I said.

"Yeah, we can't hear God, but He can heaw us," said the Little Guy.  "God is in heaven."

"Yes, Jesus died, and then He came back from being dead, and now He lives in heaven."

"We didn't read the whole thing," he said, and went back to the start of the picture Bible.  We looked at the beautiful world God made.  Then at Adam and Eve, hiding from God because of their sin.  We looked at the Flood where all the people died because they wouldn't let God take their sin away.  But Noah was safe.  We looked at the Tower of Babel, where God made all the people talk different because they wouldn't let Him take their sin away.  We looked at Sodom and Gomorrah, on fire because the people wouldn't let God take their sin away.  We looked at Abraham offering Isaac to show that Jesus would die instead of us, to take our sin away.

Little Guy popped up and looked out the window.  He didn't really seem to be paying attention.  Maybe another time, I thought.  He needs to think about all this.  He needs to understand.  And I was struggling, because I realized I don't trust God so much myself.  I had to make myself put it all in God's hands, because it's His act of redemption.

I told the Little Guy, "You need to talk to God.  We pray to Him.  Like this:  'Dear Jesus, please take my sin away and put it on the cross, and please come into my heart."

He started jumping on the couch.  Then he looked at me and said, "I want you to help me."  He took a flying leap into my arms and hugged me around the neck.

"Okay, but you have to do it.  I can't get God to take your sin away."

He curled up in my lap, leaned his wee head on me, closed his eyes, and folded his hands.  "Dear Jesus, take my sin away.  And try not to die."  Up he popped again.  "I told God to try not to die."

"Why?" I asked in befuddled amusement.

"Because I don't want God to die."

"He won't die anymore, honey.  He died on the cross, and now He's alive, and He's not ever going to die again.  Do you want to ask Jesus to come into your heart?"

Little Guy curled up inside my arms again, and folded his hands again.  "Dear Jesus, pwease come into my heart."

Then he jumped up and threw his arms around my neck with a sweet smile.  "God is in my heart now."

And our family was complete.  Not one is lacking of those the Father gave to us - each one belongs to Jesus too.

We lost a brother in Christ last week.  We gained another brother in Christ.  I'm sure Henry was thrilled to hear the news when he got Home.

Untitled Comment

Okay, it was worth the wait to read that. There needs to be some CMEO code or something. (Crying My Eye's Out) My kind of uncle died this Sunday from cancer. That has got to be one of sweetest salvation stories I've ever heard. Hallelujah!

Abiding in the Vine!

sagerats - 11:48 PM - Jan. 16, 2006

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ok, me too

That was so sweet. 3 of my 5 are saved (the other 2 being 4 and 6). You explained it so beautifully.

JeninNB - 8:55 PM - Feb. 14, 2006

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